ESA Readies for ‘Assisted Reentry’ of Aeolus Written 20 July 2023

Aeolus-ESA-wiki

ADM-Aeolus is an ESA (European Space Agency) Earth Explorer Core Mission. | Credit: ESA - P. Carril; Wikipedia; Fair Use

Space News reports that the European Space Agency “is in the final stages of performing an ‘assisted reentry’ of an Earth science spacecraft, an effort that will attempt to bring the satellite down over the ocean in a little more than a week.” A series of maneuvers “will lower the perigee of the Aeolus spacecraft to enable a reentry, projected over the Atlantic Ocean, on July 28.” The maneuvers “are intended to minimize any chance that debris from the spacecraft that survives reentry would land in populated areas.”
Full Story (Space News)